Technology: Japan’s Robot Revolution

In Japan, robots have been a large part of pop culture. At the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, the robot ASIMO can run, complete tasks, and interact with people. Some other automatons are capable of reading headlines to museum visitors and speaking to friends who are far away while allowing a person to feel the friend’s presence. Twenty-One is a multipurpose home care droid that can complete a number of tasks, including assisting the elderly at nursing homes. Due to advances in emotion recognition functions, robots are becoming more sympathetic and human. Although it will be a long time before robots are mass-produced and integrated into daily lives, this technology has the potential to become common in the future.